Washington, Nov 24 (ANI): With the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lists al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and his second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, as high value targets in the drone campaign against the terror group in Pakistan, US counterterrorism and intelligence officials insist that their demise could lead to the group's defeat.
The US officials, however, said that lower-level fighters and other insurgent groups will remain a focus of Predator surveillance and strikes, the Express Tribune reports.
"Now is not the time to let up the pressure," the Express Tribune quoted a US official familiar with drone operations, as saying.
"We've got an opportunity to keep them down, and letting up now could allow them to regenerate," he added.
The group's weakened condition has raised questions for the CIA about its deployment of personnel and resources.
Despite the fact that US counter terrorism officials now assess al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen as a significantly greater threat, the CIA's station in Islamabad remains one of its largest in the world.
According to the officials, the CIA has resisted moving operatives away from Pakistan because its priority is to abolish the network's base.
"We have rendered the organisation that brought us 9/11 operationally ineffective," a senior US counterterrorism official said about the group's position in absence of these to strong leaders, adding: "Not very much. Not any of the world-class terrorists they once had." (ANI)
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